Social Good

'Dreamer' dies after attempting to save Harvey victims

Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old "Dreamer" from Texas, died after he and two friends ventured into surging Harvey floods to save lives, according to local reports.

Guillen, who was born in Mexico and moved to Texas as a teenager, was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides visas to immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as undocumented children — also known as "Dreamers."

Guillen disappeared on Wednesday with two friends when they ventured out to save lives from deadly Harvey floods, according to the Houston Chronicle. The group reportedly hit a bridge in their boat and capsized around midnight. One of the friends was later rescued clinging to a tree in rushing water. The other friend — Tomas Carreon Jr. — was found dead on Friday afternoon. Guillen's body was recovered two days later by his family.

Guillen was just one of the 800,000 immigrants who work and live in the U.S. protected by the Obama-era DACA program, a policy President Donald Trump reportedly plans to eliminate.

Guillen's father, Jesus Guillen, told the Houston Chronicle that he begged his son not to venture out into the storm, but that his son insisted, saying that he wanted to help people. "Thank you, God," his father said, "for the time I had with him."

Officials now say at least 60 people have been killed by Harvey after the storm dumped record amounts of rain in a small area over just a matter of days. Many of the deaths in the storm have been people drowning in flash floods.

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